Angels Wear White triumphs at the Antalya Film Festival

Chinese director Vivian Qu’s sophomore feature, "Angels Wear White", has won the Best Film Award at the 54thAntalya Film Festival, which ran from 21-27 October. The prizes were given out at the closing-night ceremony, held at the Antalya Expo Center.

The international jury, headed up by Palestinian director Elia Suleiman, and comprising Turkish actress-writer-producer Fadik Sevin Atasoy, Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz, composer and musician Kjartan Sveinsson, and playwright Rebecca Lenkiewicz, handed the €50,000 prize to Qu, who also picked up the Best Actress Award on behalf of her lead actress, Wen Qi, which came with €2,500 in cash.

This year’s Un Certain Regard winner, the Iranian film "A Man of Integrity", left Antalya with two awards, with Best Director going to Mohammad Rasoulof, who cannot travel because the Iranian authorities have confiscated his passport, and Best Actor going to Reza Akhlaghirad. The awards will be accompanied by €25,000 and €2,500, respectively. Also, Sean Baker’s latest film, "The Florida Project", received the Special Jury Award.

Two Turkish films that were screened as world premieres during the Antalya International Film Festival managed to snag two awards. The lead actress in Ender Özkahraman’s "Ugly Duckling", Sukran Akti, received the Behlül Dal Award for Emerging Turkish Talent, and the audience voted "The Guest" by Andaç Haznedaroglu as its favourite – thus it scooped the Audience Award, worth €10,000. Finally, Ana Urushadze’s debut feature, "Scary Mother", received the Youth Jury Award.

Also featuring among the international guests at the closing ceremony was celebrated actor, director and scriptwriter Matt Dillon, who won an Honorary Orange Lifetime Achievement Award.

Mike Downey, artistic director of the Antalya International Film Festival, commented on the awards: “The prizes reflect some of the key issues facing the world today in works by some of the very best practitioners of cinematic art from across the globe.”